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Lateral view of a Female Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae) (Hex) Mayfly Dun from the Namekagon River in Wisconsin
Hex Mayflies
Hexagenia limbata

The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.

Dorsal view of a Ephemerella mucronata (Ephemerellidae) Mayfly Nymph from the Yakima River in Washington
This is an interesting one. Following the keys in Merritt R.W., Cummins, K.W., and Berg, M.B. (2019) and Jacobus et al. (2014), it keys clearly to Ephemerella. Jacobus et al provide a key to species, but some of the characteristics are tricky to interpret without illustrations. If I didn't make any mistakes, this one keys to Ephemerella mucronata, which has not previously been reported any closer to here than Montana and Alberta. The main character seems to fit well: "Abdominal terga with prominent, paired, subparallel, spiculate ridges." Several illustrations or descriptions of this holarctic species from the US and Europe seem to match, including the body length, tarsal claws and denticles, labial palp, and gill shapes. These sources include including Richard Allen's original description of this species in North America under the now-defunct name E. moffatae in Allen RK (1977) and the figures in this description of the species in Italy.
27" brown trout, my largest ever. It was the sub-dominant fish in its pool. After this, I hooked the bigger one, but I couldn't land it.
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RogueBum has attached these 3 pictures to this report. The message is below.
3wt Glass Rod - Great Fight!
Casting Lessons With My Daughter
Dinner!

Report at a Glance

General RegionPacific Northwest
Specific LocationRogue River, Southern Oregon
Dates FishedFriday, June 6th & Saturday, June 7th
Time of DayEvening hatch on Friday, Morning hatch on Saturday
Fish CaughtRainbow Trout
Conditions & HatchesSunny and warm (about 85 degrees) during the day cooling off (to about 65 degrees) for the evening. Friday night there was a pretty nice salmon fly hatch where the trout were going crazy for Stimulator patterns. Saturday morning there were all kinds of gnats out, but I had no success as far as fish goes.

Details and Discussion

RogueBum
Posts: 2
RogueBum on Jun 10, 2014June 10th, 2014, 9:54 am EDT
It was a great to trip to the Upper Rogue River (in beautiful Southern Oregon) over this past weekend. I took a 3wt glass rod and a 5wt graphite rod with me and hiked about 45 minutes down into a little canyon that the river flows through.

I had my daughter with me and a good friend from work and we all decided to camp for the night so we could hit the morning hatch. We arrived on Friday evening just in time to set up camp and get geared up. The trout were biting like crazy! Rising to anything over a size 10 hook, they were feeding on a salmon fly hatch that we were not expecting.

Dinner was good that night! Nothing under 10".

The next morning though, it seemed like the river dried up. In 2 hours of fishing, I didn't get one grab or see a single rise! I started with the Stimulator pattern... nothing. I switched to a Parachute Adams with a Prince Nymph dropper... nothing. Finally I went to a Griffith's Gnat because of what appeared to be a million gnats flying around everywhere... nothing.

Maybe we caught them all the night before ;) Fun trip though!
Motrout
Motrout's profile picture
Posts: 319
Motrout on Jun 10, 2014June 10th, 2014, 10:07 am EDT
What a beautiful river you've got there. As for your lack of success the second day.......fishing's weird sometimes. Who knows, but they were probably too full of salmonflies to care about anything else.

Thanks for posting!
"I don't know what fly fishing teaches us, but I think it's something we need to know."-John Gierach
http://fishingintheozarks.blogspot.com/
Roguerat
Roguerat's profile picture
Posts: 456
Roguerat on Jun 10, 2014June 10th, 2014, 12:43 pm EDT
RogueBum,

Welcome!

Your Rogue is a bit faster (and has some real rocks...not cobble) than our version here in Michigan. Great pictures of a beautiful trout stream, I'd like to fish it before I get too old to wade.

Roguerat

I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him...'
Kschaefer3
Kschaefer3's profile picture
St. Paul, MN

Posts: 376
Kschaefer3 on Jun 10, 2014June 10th, 2014, 12:58 pm EDT
That river looks wonderful! I would love to fish it sometime!
Powellammon
Powellammon's profile picture
Price, Utah

Posts: 4
Powellammon on Jun 16, 2014June 16th, 2014, 3:19 pm EDT
Thanks for the beautiful pictures. Nice job on teaching your daughter to fly fish!!!

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